Fans Told Mashed Their Go-To McCafe Orders - Exclusive Survey

McCafe, believe it or not, is celebrating its 30^th anniversary this year. If you don't remember McCafes being around back in the '90s, there's nothing wrong with your memory, it's just that the first ones were only open in Australia. Though McDonald's opened a McCafe in Chicago in 2001, it didn't integrate the service into many existing U.S. McDonald's locations until 2009. Over the past 14 years, we've had ample time to become accustomed to having Starbucks-type options along with our burgers and fries.

In celebration of McCafe's Antipodean anniversary, Mashed recently posted an online YouTube poll to determine our readers' favorite McCafe beverages. (In order not to overcomplicate things, we left out the McCafe bakery items.) The poll provided a choice of five different McCafe drinks — Americano, cappuccino, caramel macchiato, frappe, and mocha latte. 

Around 7,400 people answered our call, and when we tallied the results, we had a clear winner. McCafe's frappe was the fan favorite with 38% of the vote.

In comparison to Starbucks frappuccino, Mickey D's frappe tends to have a sweeter, less coffee-like taste, though it does also have fewer flavor varieties as well. One significant advantage the frappe has over its competitor, though, is that of price. While prices vary from state to state, a medium mocha frappe ordered through Uber Eats in Milwaukee costs $4.79. Meanwhile, a Starbucks grande mocha frappuccino (also from Uber Eats Milwaukee) goes for $6.45. However, McDonald's frappes have more calories than Starbucks. 

Finishing second place in our poll with 20% was the caramel macchiato, another drink that also costs less but has more calories than a similar Starbucks beverage. Surprisingly, the plain-Jane McCafe Americano finished third with a respectable 17% of the vote. As our poll was a global one, it would have been interesting to see how many Americano fans are actually American, but that question will have to remain unanswered for now. 

To get back to our current poll, though, the mocha latte finished fourth, with 14% of the votes, while the McCappuccino (not its real name) came in last with 11%. Clearly, users weren't the biggest fans of the restaurant's cappuccino offerings.